(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

You’d think we would have learned by now in this province.

First we believed the B.C. Liberals won a minority government. Then yesterday, we were told the B.C. NDP would form government thanks to an alliance with the Green Party.

Maybe. But I wouldn’t bet on that. Would you?

A lot still has to happen here. The Lieutenant Governor must have some assurance this stitched together government may stand and survive to provide good government. Personally I like the idea of parties remaining separate and standing on their own but negotiating agreements to keep the province moving forward. I doubt it will work, but I like the idea.

That is just the kind of naivety that assures good guys like me — and Green Party of B.C. leader Andrew Weaver — always seem to finish last.

Weaver was the belle of the ball for two weeks, basking in the sunshine like Cinderella as the deer and critters and birds of the forest came to make him fancy king-making robes and accompany him to power. He’s been so adorable, all smiles and jokes for everyone who needs to talk to him. He looks a completely different man from the one before May 9.

Today, Premier-for-now Christy Clark made a short statement. She said she will rush to the legislature with due haste to get this show on the road and see what happens.

Weaver’s response, presumably made while dancing naked and free in fields of tall green grass: “What is most important for me (is) Premier Clark has signalled her willingness to work across party lines as we move forward. This new form of politics is what voters asked for in this election.... Our agreement to support a B.C. NDP government is an important aspect of collaboration in this new political era, but cross-partisan work is not limited to it.

“I value the positive working relationship that Premier Clark and I maintained in previous sessions, where we were able to work together to advance important public policy issues. I look forward to continuing that relationship in the weeks and months ahead.”

Oh, Andrew. Have you forgotten that B.C politics is bloodsport?

To me, Clark’s statement was the first sign this won’t go as smoothly as Horgan and Weaver think it will. No one rushes to hand over power. No one.

I can’t see the B.C. Liberals rolling over to play opposition, not when there's so much at stake. My guess is the only reason Clark is being expedient is because that’s how she stays ahead of the knives in her own party. It’s in her own best interest to find some way to expose the NDP-Green sham for what it is and take a run at another election before the Liberals find her replacement.

If not, Christy will go the route of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and slowly fade into the distance and we’ll have yet another election in Kelowna-West. She won’t follow the long parade of former provincial NDP leaders still filling back benches.

If we don’t go back to the voting booths at the machinations of the Liberal Party, it will surely be because of this unholy union between the NDP and Greens.

I have no doubt Weaver and the Greens are using a fact-based-peer-reviewed-scientific-mumby-whatzit to prove and justify the NDP as their new friends. And as friends, they shall hold hands and exchange gifts and sup together and daughters may marry sons and finally the world will see that what it needed all along… was the Green Party to make it better.

But the moment John Horgan believes he has some new path to majority victory, he will find a way to turn this marriage into the Red Wedding, Game of Thrones style. My prediction is we’ll be voting again before the end of the year.

This little fairy-tale won’t have a Disney ending and it could be the Green Party that loses the most when it does.

The concern about the Greens has always been credibility. You feel good voting Green when they don’t have a hope in hell. It’s been fascinating to watch them with a bit of power and responsibility. But if they can’t hold onto it, or get suckered into some standard B.C. political trap that thrusts the province back into voting booths inside a year, voter fears that they can’t be taken seriously will be tough to overcome.

Then there’ll be no way for Andrew Weaver to fit back into that glass slipper.

— Marshall Jones is the editor of iNFOnews.ca

News from © iNFOnews, 2017